... N-Alkyl amines are extensively applied in the synthesis of functional materials, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides. The reaction of diols with amines is attractive and has been investigated for more than 30 years by using iridium, ruthenium, and other catalysts. However, the main products with diols as starting materials, especially for C₄–C₆ diols, are N-heterocyclic compounds because cyclization r ...

... Our understanding of the mechanisms of plant response to environment fluctuations during plants’ phenological phases (phenophases) remains incomplete. Continuous chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) measurements were acquired from the field to quantify the responses in a desert shrub species (i.e., Artemesia ordosica Krasch. (A. ordosica)) to environmental factors by assessing variation in severa ...

... Wolbachia are endosymbiotic bacteria that infect arthropod and nematode hosts. Only a few studies have been made on Wolbachia in butterflies. In this study, we identified and determined the molecular characteristics of Wolbachia strains in Polytremis fukia (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), from seven locations in China. We also sequenced three portions of the mitochondrial DNA from the individuals of P. ...

... Northern China’s plantations have long played a role in providing ecological services to the people of China. Reliable detection and attribution of ecosystem water and energy exchange is a precondition to the development of strategies for the sustainable management of these plantations. Here, the seasonal and interannual variability in surface energy exchange and evapotranspiration (ET) over a you ...

... The maternally inherited obligate bacteria Wolbachia is known for infecting the reproductive tissues of a wide range of arthropods and can contribute to phylogenetically discordant patterns between mtDNA and nDNA. In this study, we tested for an association between mito-nuclear discordance in Polytremis and Wolbachia infection. Six of the 17 species of Polytremis were found to be infected with Wol ...

... Thermal dissipation of excess excitation energy is an important photoprotective mechanism that plants have evolved to cope with surplus illumination. However, light-energy-partitioning dynamics in an exotic sand-dune willow (Salix psammophila) commonly used in restoring and/or stabilizing sand lands in northwestern China is largely unknown. In this study, chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) of photosy ...

... Eleven polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized from a Chinese endemic species, Polytremis fukia Evans. The isolated loci were polymorphic, with 5–10 alleles in 21 individuals. The analyses revealed that they had different multilocus genotypes, with the expected heterozygosity ranging from 0.69 to 0.86 and observed heterozygosity ranging from 0.48 to 0.65. All loci were in H ...

... Extreme rainfall events are infrequent disturbances that affect urban environments and soil respiration (Rs). Using data measured in an urban forest ecosystem in Beijing, China, we examined the link between gross primary production (GPP) and soil respiration on a diurnal scale during an extreme rainfall event (i.e., the “21 July 2012 event”), and we examined diel and seasonal environmental control ...

... Knowledge of surface-atmosphere CO2 exchanges in urban forests is imperative. We measured net ecosystem CO2 exchange of an urban forest in Beijing over a two-year period (2012–2013). The aim was to examine seasonal controls of environmental variables on ecosystem carbon (C) cycle assessed with eddy covariance technique. Net ecosystem production (NEP) was 30% less in 2012 (200±27g Cm−2) than in 201 ...

... The understanding of the seasonal dynamics of leaf nitrogen (N) relative to leaf traits for desert shrub species is limited. We investigated the seasonal changes in leaf N, soil N, specific leaf area (SLA) and photosynthetic capacity (Pmax) in relation to the phenology of Artemisia ordosica in a desert shrubland area in northern China during the growing season of year 2012. We found that the amoun ...